but i am glad that you're up and with us this morning watching on msnbc or listening live on sirius/xm radio. you can always shoot me an e-mail or tweet necessity. let me know why you're awake right now. or you can do what nfl referees do and text awake followed by your response to 622369. >> i always forget that part. you're great. we'll read the best responses later on. the next 30 minutes is your friday cram session on this friday, september 28. there is a lot going on today including new polls out by the nbc and "wall street journal" that show a tight race between the president and mitt romney. and we're looking through the eyes of the "saturday night live" crew. a special campaign edition later on in the show.

first, let us get to the news live here at 5:30 a.m. at 30 rock in the center of new york city. we do begin with new developments out of libya. the a.p. reporting the u.s. state department is pulling more staffers out of its embassy in the capital of tripoli over security fears. the move is expected to be temporary until the security situation improves. the embassy was already operating with limited staff following the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi that left four americans dead. it is now been 17 days since that attack. sources say fbi agents sent to investigate the murders still have not been able to visit the actual scene of the crime due to security concerns. secretary of defense leon panetta yesterday said there was no doubt terrorists were responsible. >> as we determined the details of what took place there and how that attack took place that it became clear that there were

terrorists who had planned that attack. and that's when i came to that conclusion as, again, as to who was involved, what specific groups were involved, i think the investigation that is on going. >> the romney campaign ramped up its criticism of the president's response to those attacks claiming the administration overstated the influence of an anti-islam youtube film in order to draw folk us away from security short falls. and the man behind the anti-islam film which sparked protests throughout the muslim world is under arrest this morning in california. 55-year-old is arrested. he is accused of violating his probation. as part of a probation deal, he was barred from using computers on the internet without special permission. a term he is now suspected of breaking. a federal judge denied him bail citing him as a flight risk.

in afghanistan, the pentagon revealed that most u.s. and nato combat troops have resumed joint operations with afghany forces less than two weeks ago u.s. commanders announced an indefinite halt in joint operations. this after a spike in the number of insider attacks. 51 nato troops have been killed by insider attacks in just the past month. elsewhere, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu can expect a phone call from president obama today that according to the white house. this after a scheduling conflict kept the two from meeting in person. last night in new york the israeli leader did meet with secretary of state clinton one-on-one for more than an hour in what was described as an indepth discussion on iran and shared goal of preventing that country from acquiring a nuclear weapon. just hours earlier, netanyahu used visual imagery to lay out in clear terms his own red line for dealing with iran. nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell

has more from the u.n. general assembly. >> reporter: trying to immobilize the world against what he sees as a threat to israel's existence, benjamin netanyahu armed himself with a simple cartoon to illustrate how close he says iran is to developing a nuclear weapon. >> this is a bomb. this is a fuse. >> reporter: a day after iran's president ahmadinejad called israel uncivilized zionists. iran is already 70% to getting enough nuclear fuel for a bomb and has to be stopped within months. >> if these are the facts -- and they are -- where should a red line be drawn? a red line should be drawn right here. >> reporter: president obama told the u.n. this week he thinks there is a way to avoid military action. >> america wants to resolve this issue through diplomacy. we believe that there is still time and space to do so. >> reporter: but netanyahu sees a much shorter deadline for military strike. >> the big question is what point can we no longer prevent

iran from getting a bomb? that is why with a red pen he drew that line he was showing the world the point which we may not -- may no longer be able to stop them from get a weapon. >> the president was 360 miles away heading back to washington from a campaign rally in virginia beach. the white house said too busy to meet with israel's prime minister. the relationship has been tense, even frosty, an issue that mitt romney tried to exploit. >> president obama has thrown israel under the bus. >> reporter: the white house feels it is more in tune with voters. >> i executed on my foreign policy and one that the american people largely agree with. so, you know, if governor romney is suggesting that we should start another war, he should say so. >> that was nbc's andrea mitchell reporting. this morning iran is responding to netanyahu's red line comments saying it reserves the right to retaliate against any attack.

meantime, new internal israeli government report finds that international sanctions are, in fact, hurting iran's economy but have not slowed down the nuclear program. the report calls for another round of sanctions to be implemented. >> in the race for the white house, we have got new batch of poll numbers coming out on three more battleground states. according to the new nbc/"wall street journal"/marist college poll, the president has a slim lead over voters in north carolina where the democrats held their national convention earlier this month. obama won the state in 2008 by less than 1%. he also has a two-point advantage in nevada, well within the margin of error and in new hampshire where mitt romney owns a home, obama leads 51% to 44%. in all, three states registered voters said the direction of the country had indeed improved but the most significant was in new hampshire. back in june there was a 20-point gap between so-called

wrong track and right track respondents. this gap is just seven points. yesterday, iowa became the first battleground state to begin early in person voting. ohio will do the same on tuesday. for the second time in two days, president obama and mitt romney spent the day campaigning in the same state. yesterday the candidates descended on virginia, a state that could be a new political bellwether. a poll out last night shows the two candidates neck and neck in the old dominion. they released ads this week that could be their campaigns closing arguments with each ad showing the candidate speaking directly into the camera and directly to the american people. but yesterday the obama campaign followed that up with a tough commercial using his opponent's own words against him. >> i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >> there are 47% of the people who vote for the president no

matter what. they believe they're victims. who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them. who believe that they're entitled to health care and food, housing, you name it. and they will vote for this president no matter what. so my job is not to worry about those 47%. they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. >> now romney for his part campaigning at the american legion hall in springfield, virginia, focused on that state's deep ties to the military, accusing obama of supporting cuts in the defense budget. >> given the challenges and threats around the world, given the need for employment here, and given the need of our veterans, how in the world as commander in chief you can stand by as we shrink our military commitment financially is something i don't understand and i will reverse it. >> vice president joe biden will hit the campaign trail today in boca raton, florida. that is the same spot where

romney now made his famous comments about the 47% and where the third and final presidential debate will be held next month. all right. stale head on "way too early," who needs athletes? we now have referees to cheer for. the real refs replace the replacements in thursday night football and an unbelievable hit on the browns josh cribbs you'll not want to miss. and stephen colbert shows us how the romney campaign is reacting to a bad week of poll numbers and, of course, a check on this friday weather all when "way too early" come right back.

ally bank. why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally.

lovely shot of the capitol there in washington, d.c. let's get a check on your friday weather now from nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning. >> let it rain on the friday to clear it out for the weekend. >> sounds good to me. >> if you're in new england, you'll be dealing with wet roads out there and embedded areas of heavier rain through connecticut and exiting northern jersey and southern portions of new york. this is with us for the first half of the day. by the second half of the day, this is exiting northern new england. as far as the forecast goes, the other problem is going to be in texas. we'll see heavy rain there. san antonio airports late today with thunderstorms possible delays. and then on saturday, especially around houston to new orleans, those locations could pick up as much as two to three inches of rain. so your forecast as we take you through today, we look gorgeous in the great lakes up through the northern plains. no problems whatsoever. scattered storms on the gulf coast. now for the weekend part of the forecast, we remain nearly perfect. what a weekend it's going to be from chicago to detroit. st. louis to kansas city. enjoy that. the ryder cup taking place there

in illinois. beautiful weekend. weekend weather. to southeast, that is the problem. i think boston, you may deal with showers on and off saturday and sunday along with coastal portions of new england. but the rest of the mid-atlantic should be just fine from new york to d.c. to philadelphia. and then by sunday, the heavy rain exits texas. the only problems areas is new orleans. you could deal with heavy rainfall. the bottom line for the weekend, doesn't look like anything is going to be a complete washout with the exception of texas and louisiana. >> if the yankees don't make the playoffs. that will be the ultimate washout. >> you're still doing all right. >> who's we? i'm an angels fan. >> you're not allowed. that's willy's rule. you have to be a yankee fan. >> willy's not here. >> that's true. >> and that was not an accidental transition because it is time for sports now. and we start in the league of professional referees. also known now as the nfl because the union revs were greeted with a standing ovation by the good fans in baltimore as they made their long awaited return to the field for the

ravens game against the browns. and for once the men in stripes were the most popular guys in the stadium, at least for a bit. let's get to the actual game. no score in the first quarter. josh cribbs back to receive a punt for the browns. wow! look at this, folks. he gets popped at the 40 yard line. his helmet comes flying off. anyway, it's a loot ball. that is the least of anybody's worries. cribbs who got sandwiches between defenders lied motionless on the field for a bit. both teams gathered around him in prayer. but thankfully cribbs got up, walked off under his own power, even managed a bit of a smile. picking it up in the third quarter, browns driving into ravens territory down by six. but rookie brandon weedon throws a floater into the flap, picked off by kerry williams. takes it 65 yards the other way and give the ravens a two score lead. browns draw within six and have a chance to win it.

weedon throws a hail mary to the end zone. kind of like that seattle play. but this one falls incomplete. now does look like the game is over. but an unnecessary roughness call gives the cleveland browns one more chance. two seconds left, browns with the a.p. too strong. the ravens go on to win. the browns still looking for their win, they're 0-4. the ravens improve to 3-1. to college football now. well, we didn't have to wait for saturday to see a top ten team go down. washington at home against eighth ranked stanford. huskies down by three. a screen out to cason williams. breaks a tackle at the line of scrimmage. he outruns the defense. he's in the end zone. that is known as a touchdown. the huskies take the lead 17-13 with just under five minutes to go in the game. stanford trying to answer with two minutes left. josh nunez gets picked off by

desmond trufont. that seals it for the huskies in the same stadium where the seahawks stole one from the packers. huskies take down number eight stanford by a final of 17-13. the crowd in purple storms the field. to baseball now. the play-off chase is really heating up. and the mets could be less relevant for postseason pictures. still, we're going to show you highlights from your game yesterday because this happened. >> i know the reason for that. baxter hits it in the air. back goes snyder. it's out of here! he ran it back. he brought it back. >> yeah, kind of emblematic of the mets season. you see travis snyder of the pirates making like spiderman, climbing the fence. probably makes the catch of the day. maybe the year. but this day belongs to r.a. dickie. went into the eighth inning to get the 20th win of the year.

the first mets to win 20. mets beat the pirates. he is making the case for the national cy young award. tigers hosting orioles. fister struck out nine batters in a row. not all in the same inning. that was an american league record before finally letting somebody ground out the shortstop instead. tigers beat the royals 5-4 behind that dominant outing, they have now got a two-game lead in the a.l. central. 2 1/2 hours from now the first foursome at the ryder cup of golf including roy mcelroy will tee off outside of chicago. if you're planning to try to get a ticket though, bring your checkbook or a credit card with a large credit line. the event is completely sold out. tickets there are being scalped and on the secondary market

going for more than $8,000 apiece. tiger woods, by the way, will play in the last foursome of the morning. they're going to tee off at 9:05 a.m. eastern time. he is being paired with steve stricker. all right, coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," they will be live in our nation's capital. a new poll in shows us where the race for the white house stacks up just 39 days from election day. "morning joe" crew will break down the numbers for you. and when we come back here, we're going to huddle around the water cooler. last week "s&l" had fun at mitt romney's expense. we show a special thursday edition. last night it was president obama's turn to face some heat. we're going to show you that clip when "way too early" come right back. ♪ hey america, even though they don't need one, wes, clay and demarcus tried on the new depend real fit briefs for charity to prove how great the fit is even while playing pro football. the best protection

now looks, fits and feels just like underwear. get a free sample and try one on for yourself. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts, more events, more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with the citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ] [ male announcer ] introducing a reason to look twice. the entirely new lexus es and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection.

we told you at the top of the show that a new nbc/"wall street journal" poll has president obama ahead in north carolina. if you want to sound smart today, tell your friends that in the last five presidential elections, the democratic nominee has won the state where the democratic national convention was held. in fact, the last democratic nominee to lose the convention state was michael dukakis. he failed to carry georgia in

1988 despite holding the dnc in atlanta. let he is gather around the water cooler to watch a special thursday night election season edition of "saturday night live." and in this sketch, president obama takes questions from the audience at a campaign rally in ohio while many voters down in the dumps over the job market watch the president look for something that they can all agree on. >> hi. i got laid off in 2009. i still haven't found a job. i don't want to vote for romney. but i really thought things would be better by now. >> real change takes more than one term. or even one president. i don't know if it will even happen in eight years. might take 12. frankly, i might be long dead. who here has a job? there we go. there we go. what do you do, sir? >> i'm a manager at burger king. >> and where were you four years ago, probably working the

counter, right? >> i was a vice president for bank of america. >> oh, okay. the point is that today you're a manager at one of america's biggest companies. that's a success story. probably get free burgers, right? >> no one gets free burgers. actually, i had to fire a guy for eating one while eating on the clock. >> there you go. free brick. anyone else feel they're much better off than four years ago? yes, sir? what do you do? >> i don't have a job. i just won a lot of money in a lawsuit last year. >> i see. >> yeah. i was eating at a burger king and some guy just hit me with a brick. >> there you go! circle of life. look, can we at least agree that mitt romney would be worse? >> and with a number of recent polls favoring president obama, stephen colbert takes us through

how mitt romney is handling the news. >> folks, there's no reason to panic over the poll numbers. just ask mitt. >> i'm curious what you say to your supporters tonight, your donors who might be concerned that this could be slipping away. >> i'm very pleased with some polls, less so with other polls but frankly at this early stage, polls go up. polls go down. >> exactly. it's still early. there are 40 days left until the election. a lot can happen in 40 days. obama can make a gaffe. mitt can win the debates, god can send a flood and destroy all man kind. so there's hope. in fact, the election is so far off, i mean why are we even talking about it? mitt isn't talking about it. last week when reporter asked him if he was going to start campaigning harder, romney responded -- ha, ha, we're in the stretch, aren't we? look at those clouds. it's beautiful. look at those things.

yeah. yeah. yeah. just look at those things. look at those pretty clouds. that one kind of looks like a bunny. or if you turn your head the other way crushing poll results. >> all right. still ahead on "way too early," why are you awake? your optimistic tweets, texts, e-mails, smoke signals all coming up and "morning joe" moments -- seconds away. i don't want healthy skin for a day.

i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] don't just moisturize, improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula goes beyond 24-hour moisture. it's clinically proven to improve your skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. for healthy, beautiful skin that lasts. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. also discover daily moisturizing body wash. for healthy skin that starts in the shower. only from aveeno.

side by side so you get the same coverage, often for less. that's one smart board. what else does it do, reverse gravity? [ laughs ] [ laughs ] [ whooshing ] tell me about it. why am i not going anywhere? you don't believe hard enough. a smarter way to shop around. now that's progressive. call or click today. [ grunting ] less expensive option than a traditional lawyer? at legalzoom you get personalized services for your family and your business

that's 100% guaranteed. so go to legalzoom.com today for personalized, affordable legal protection. we asked why are you awake? producer john tower has some answers. john? >> now that the nfl has fixed the replacement problem willie needs to fix his "who is this guy?" >> brian sullivan, a 15-year overnight sensation. thanks for writing in. have a wonderful weekend. thanks to you all for watching. hopefully willie will be back next week. i hope so too. "morning